TIGA-CUB-manualised psychoanalytic child psychotherapy versus treatment as usual for children aged 5–11 with treatment-resistant conduct disorders and their primary carers: results from a randomised controlled feasibility trial

Background: Parenting programmes are recommended for conduct disorders in 5–11 year olds, but ineffective for 25–33%. A feasibility trial was needed to determine whether a confirmatory trial of second-line, manualised short-term psychoanalytic child psychotherapy (mPCP) versus treatment as usual (TaU) is practicable.Method: This was a two-arm, pragmatic, parallel-group, multi-centre, individually-randomised controlled feasibility trial with blinded outcome assessment. Child–primary carer dyads were recruited from National Health Service Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and mPCP delivered by routine child psychotherapists.Results: Thirty-two dyads (50% of eligible, 95% CI 37 to 63%) were recruited, with 16 randomised to each arm. Eleven (69%) completed ≥50% of 12 week mPCP and 13 (81%) . Follow-up was obtained for 24 (75%) at 4 months and 14/16 (88%) at 8 months. Teacher follow-up was 16 (50%) ≥1 session. Manual adherence was good. Baseline candidate primary outcomes were 37.4 (SD 11.4) and 18.1...